Verdant and CitiCards

[e28bigalbexley]

HI

Sounds like you will end up in a Mercantile court

[verdant]

Citi have responded to the judge's order.

 

Their letter to the court:

 

I act on behalf of CitiFinancial Europe plc and write further to the Order of District Judge Spencer date 2nd April.

 

Regarding the Defendant complying with Part 1 of the Order, I regret I am unable to comply since, as the Court will be aware, the majority of default claims that are lodged are being heard exclusively in the Small Claims Track and every case I have referred to has been heard in that forum. There are no written judgements or findings of fact that my client can refer the Court to as every final Order is simply a variation on "Case Dismissed" or "Claim struck out".

 

Anecdotally, various District Judges have noted that it is for the Claimant to prove his case that the charges are penalties rather than liquidated damages clauses; that to do otherwise would reverse the burden of proof; that a breach of contract issues in damages and that it is not tenable for the Claimant to breach and recover everything and, given that, the OFT figure is a reasonable starting point.

 

The bases of law relied upon by my client are identical in most points to those set out in the Defendant's defence hereto (save where the account has defaulted and charged off) and the draft Skeleton argument and witness statement that I enclose herewith. These are submitted in each case and have proven persuasive in all cases so far heard.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr Brian Smith

 

As far as I can tell this letter is saying we're not complying with your order, we're not even going to tell you which cases we claim we've won.